Hi AllSorry for this, but I've failed to come up with an answer to this to my satisfaction, so perhaps a few of you could chime in with some answers.

I'm fairly firm on the idea of buying a 645 AFD II (with either ZD, Leaf, or Phase One back, pending budget), but I'd like to know what lenses apart from Mamiya's can be used, and what the compromises may be (eg no autofocus or aperture etc).

Intended use is primarily still life, product and architecture, with some portraiture. I'm not really looking for individual lens recommendations, just help to zone in on what is available for this camera.

Hi AllSorry for this, but I've failed to come up with an answer to this to my satisfaction, so perhaps a few of you could chime in with some answers.

I'm fairly firm on the idea of buying a 645 AFD II (with either ZD, Leaf, or Phase One back, pending budget), but I'd like to know what lenses apart from Mamiya's can be used, and what the compromises may be (eg no autofocus or aperture etc).

Intended use is primarily still life, product and architecture, with some portraiture. I'm not really looking for individual lens recommendations, just help to zone in on what is available for this camera.

Many Thanks in Advance[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=133154\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Jon,

I recently went through lots of thoughts to the Mamiya lenses, what was available for this system and what would work for me. In following are my lenses and my considerations to why:

Mamiya 55-110 AF ; This is my normal zoom. It is not as wide as my Nikon 28-70 was, but is perfect fine as a normal lens (I prefer the image quality I get now ). I realized my need for wide is most in landscape. Being a normal lens the AF was important to me.

Mamiya 105-210 ; This replaces my HEAVY Nikon 70-210 AFS VR. The 105-210 is 2/3 of weight . It is also shorter, but I can now either get closer to subject or crop. Longer than 210 on Mamiya system gives you rather tiny DOF and large near focus. Although I rarely use the 105-210 range, it is good for occassional wildlife and similar, hence the need for AF to also nail the focus due shallow DOF for medium format compared to 35.

Mamiya 35mm ; I got the AF here... simply it felt so swell using it. This is excellent wide for landscape.

Mamiya 24mm fisheye ; Stopped down metering, no problem. It is a joy to use this lens. It is fun, and can be defished in Image Align. The Mamiya 28mm may be better optically, but... for significant less $$$ and slightly lighter weight I have option to use it as the 35mm equivalence to a 17mm fisheye or defish it to make it perhaps into 20-22mm at 35mm equivalence.

Mamiya 80mm f1.9 ; stopped down metering this is for low light, both to shoot with very shallow DOF, and at distances with larger DOF.

Pentax 33-55 ; This one does NOT fit on Mamiya (YET). I am seeking to have an adapter built, or to have this lens modified for my Mamiya. I am not sure if it will succeed, but would be nice if it does...

A possible future lens for me to buy is the Hartblei 45mm superrotator. There is a nice review of it here on Lunimous Landscape. The Hartblei / Arsat lenses are the only other brands I am aware of that fit on the Mamiya. The 45mm superrotator tilt/shift lens sounds like the only of the Hartblei / Arsat of really good optical quality. There is the 30mm Arsat fisheye, but it does not sound like it is anywhere near the 24 Mamiya in optics... and defishing it would make it near the Mamiya 35mm....

So basically, stick with the Mamiya lenses. I had also seen the Hartblei mentioned, but there are also other ways of doing tilt shift with the Mamiya? Haven't got the length of thinking about that yet.

BTW I'm coming from a Canon SLR background, where there are a plethera of lenses, only a subset of which would be required by any one person! Medium format seems generally to have a much smaller set of available lenses per camera / mount, hence my question.

So basically, stick with the Mamiya lenses. I had also seen the Hartblei mentioned, but there are also other ways of doing tilt shift with the Mamiya? Haven't got the length of thinking about that yet.

BTW I'm coming from a Canon SLR background, where there are a plethera of lenses, only a subset of which would be required by any one person! Medium format seems generally to have a much smaller set of available lenses per camera / mount, hence my question.

There is also the Mamiya 50mm shift lens, but I am not sure if it is discontinued or not. For my consideration the 50mm does not tilt and it is near same focal length as the 55mm end on my mid range zoom.

Coming from Canon you will perhaps have similar impressions as me of the system. Did you consider the Mamiya ZD camera instead of back? The camera is DSLR handling (more easy to carry than AFDII and back), but it is still a medium format camera. That means it is slower. For me I actually like that. It keeps me from snapping many images that are not good but to focus more on photography. Also makes processing to fewer photos and my shooting more selective. I also like the controls on the ZD camera which are pretty much exact what I want in simplicity in their access and menu systems. I loved my Nikon F100 but did not like my Nikon D200 for same reasons. The only one thing is the Nikon cameras were more comfortable to have hanging in my right hand at the tip from my fingers... the ZD camera is not, it is heavy and not as much contoured for my middle fingers at its front. I plan to add a hand strap at side to relieve the tention (plan is to extend the kneck strap with neoprene sleeve around it... one of my projects...).

There is also the Mamiya 50mm shift lens, but I am not sure if it is discontinued or not. For my consideration the 50mm does not tilt and it is near same focal length as the 55mm end on my mid range zoom.

Coming from Canon you will perhaps have similar impressions as me of the system. Did you consider the Mamiya ZD camera instead of back?

Yes, I had considered the zd camera, but decided to keep the back and the camera 'loose', especially after reading some stuff here. I really want a refurb Leaf A75, or Phase One P45 - if budget allows!

Did I read about Zoerk, and bellows being used for tilt shift? ( I must go and search on that in these forums)